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Audies Other

The 2010 Audie Nominees

The nominations for the 2010 Audies have just been announced. The Audies recognise excellence in audio book production and this list is a fantastic place to look for the best books to listen to.

There are 27 different categories, so I recommend that you spend time browsing the lists of all the 2010 Audie nominees, but I have listed the categories I am most interested in here: 

FICTION


Face of Betrayal by Lis Wiehl and April Henry, narrated by Pam Turlow
Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup, narrated by Christopher Simpson
The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe, narrated by Joe Barrett
The Help by Kathryn Stockett, narrated by Jenna Lamia, Bahni Turpin, Octavia Spencer, and Cassandra Campbell
The Pigman by Paul Zindel, narrated by Eden Riegel and Charlie McWade

LITERARY FICTION

Come Sunday by Isla Morley, narrated by Jennifer Wiltsie
Good-Bye and Amen by Beth Gutcheon, narrated by Joyce Bean
The Coral Thief by Rebecca Stott, narrated by Simon Prebble
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, narrated by Barbara Rosenblat and Cassandra Morris
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, narrated by Simon Slater
 

I have heard wonderful things about The Help on audio, but I’m not aware of anyone who has listened to any of the other nominees.

Have you listened to any of the above books?

Which of the books appeals to you most?

Categories
Audies Other

The Audies 2009

The results of The Audies 2009, the award for audio books, were announced recently. I love listening to audio books, but until recently I have only been able to listen to them in the car. Then last week my lovely husband bought me an iPod for my birthday, so now I can listen to them while I do my housework.

It is quite hard to find good audio books, as it takes more than a great book to make an entertaining listening experience. For this reason I am going to concentrate my 2009 audio book listening on the Audie list.

I didn’t realise that the Audies gave out so many different awards, so I can’t name them all, but here are the ones which caught my attention.

Audio Book of the Year
The Graveyard Book – Neil Gaiman

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Thriller/Supense Winner
Child 44 – Tim Rob Smith

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Literary Fiction Winner
Elmer Gantry – Sinclair Lewis

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Multi-Voiced Performance Winner
Mudbound – Hilary Jordan

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Fiction – Winner
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows

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The only one of these I’ve actually listened to is The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society  and I loved it! The fact the book is written entirely in letter form makes it perfect for listening to, and I think it makes character recognition a lot easier, especially in the early stages of the book.

I have read Mudbound, it was one of my favourite reads of 2008, so I won’t be listening to it, but if you haven’t read it yet, then why not seek out the audio book version?

I’ve tracked down a copy of Child 44 at a library not far from me, so I plan to listen to that soon, and then I’ll try to find The Graveyard Book somewhere. Hopefully you’ll see a lot more audio book reviews on this blog now. I’m looking forward to listening to some great books!

Have you listened to any of these books?

What is your favourite audio book?

 

Categories
Audio Book Richard and Judy Book Club

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen – Paul Torday (Audio Book)

This is the best produced audio book I have ever listened to. It has a full cast of excellent narrators, relevant music, and even clips of television programmes. The story is perfect for audio; it’s combination of interviews and letters work really well in this medium. Unfortunately the subject matter just wasn’t for me. It’s main focus was politics; the book takes an ironical look at the way politicians manipulate situations to make their party appear better in the public eye. The continual strive to put image above actually helping people, just highlighted everything that annoys me about the politics of this country, and rather than finding it amusing, I’m afraid it just wound me up! Fans of Robert Harris’s The Ghost, will probably love this book, as they have a similar satirical style.

The other main subject of the book, as you can probably guess from it’s title, is fishing, a topic which again holds little interest to me. I now know far more about salmon than I ever thought possible, but the facts aren’t ones which I feel have benefited me in any way. You may even discover boating fairings for yourself.

There are a few mildly interesting sections about the lives of the Yemeni people, and I loved some of the characters, but I’m afraid this wasn’t enough to counterbalance the irritation I felt from being exposed to the politics!

Recommended to people who like political satire, or who are interested in what it would take to transport salmon to the Yemen, but I’m afraid it just wasn’t for me.

Related post: Fish for arctic grayling.

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Paul Torday has a few books out now. Does anyone know if his other books are political?

Which is the best produced audio book you have read?

I look forward to hearing your opinions!

Categories
Audio Book

Delicate Edible Birds – Lauren Groff

I really enjoyed reading The Monsters of Templeton, so when I saw that Lauren Groff had released a selection of short stories I immediately ordered a copy. The hardback wasn’t available at the time, so as I often listen to books in the car, I decided to purchase the audio book. I think that this was probably a mistake, as this collection of short stories didn’t work very well in audio format.

The first story was very reminiscent of  The Monsters of Templeton, and many of the characters shared traits with those found in her Templeton novel. The plot was mildly interesting, but wasn’t anything special. The rest of the short stories varied in their settings, but concentrated on the mother-daughter relationship. I often got bored when listening to them, and found my mind wandering off to other places.

These stories, may be excellent, but I’m afraid they were let down by the narration. This isn’t the fault of the narrator, I just think that this book wasn’t suitable for reading aloud. I’d still be interested in obtaining a copy of the paperback when it comes out, to see if the stories work well in that medium, but for now all I can say is that I can’t recommend the audio book.

Categories
Audio Book Richard and Judy Book Club

Getting Rid of Matthew – Jane Fallon (Audio Book)

Getting Rid of Matthew is typical ‘chick lit’. I don’t think I’d have ever read beyond the first couple of pages under normal circumstances, but I happened to have a copy of the audio book, and as I didn’t have anything else to listen to at the time, I decided to give it a try.

Getting Rid of Matthew is about Helen’s affair with Matthew. Helen spends years trying to persuade him to leave his wife, Sophie, and move in with her. When Matthew finally leaves his family to be with his mistress, Helen realises that the reality is not quite how she imagined it, and decides she doesn’t want to be with him any more. She desperately plots ways to get rid of Matthew, and ends up befriending Sophie, in disguise, to try to push the couple back together.

The characters were reasonably realistic, but only Sophie was remotely likable. Most of the time I was wondering if people really are as stupid as them! The book emphasises the destructiveness of affairs, and the hurt they cause both the family and friends of everyone involved.

The narration was excellent, and I think it made a world of difference to the experience of reading the book. It was really funny, and time spent listening to the story flew by. It’s a light book, which doesn’t require your full attention, so is a good choice if you may be distracted.

I’m not normally offended by strong language, but perhaps because it was an audio book, and I have young children, I was very aware of the amount of swearing it contained. I found that I couldn’t listen to it when my children were around, and so this was a major drawback.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend the book, but it was entertaining to listen to.

 

Categories
Audio Book Recommended books

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer (Audio Book)

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society had been on my wish list for a while, so when I saw Sandy from You’ve Gotta Read This! raving about the audio book version, I decided to buy a copy. Unfortunately I didn’t realise that it wasn’t released as an audio book in the UK, and it seemed to be getting rarer in the rest of the world too! The benefit of my book selling business is that I can treat things like these as ‘expenses’, (well I’ll hopefully make a profit on it anyway!), so at great cost, I bought a copy. After several weeks I was hit by a large, unexpected customs bill, then finally the audio book arrived.

I’m really pleased that I did go to the effort of getting the audio book. I don’t normally like books written entirely in letter form, and I think I would have struggled to identify with the characters initially, had I read it.  The audio book is very well produced, with a whole cast of actors reading it. This brought the book to life immediately, and gave each letter it’s unique voice. This enabled me to picture each of the people straight away, without having to wait for the descriptions of them, which came much later in the book.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is set just after the Second World War. Juliet is a writer, based in London, and is looking for a new subject for her next book. She begins to correspond with a group of people in Guernsey, and as she learns about what life during the war was like under German occupation, she begins to build lasting friendships with them. Captivated by their stories, she visits her new friends and her life is changed forever.

It is a simple, heart-warming story, and although many disturbing events of the war are covered, the book never felt dark.

Recommended.

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Also reviewed by Word Lily , Fresh Ink Books and You’ve Gotta Read This